1 Corinthians chapter 10

vs 23

This is nothing like the mantra of the misunderstanding Christian anymore. How many Christians, even new Christians, believe that their new faith frees them to do things? Most would believe the stereotype that they are now more restricted from doing things than before.

No, this mantra of "everything is permissible" was taken up by secular society long ago, while Christianity got more and more restrictive about what its adherents could do. It's interesting to see the change, though, when you leave a western, secular society and go to a society dominated by religious ideals of any non-Christian persuasion! Christianity is, in comparison to most other organised religions, enormously freeing, and mostly because it is based on love between man and God and between fellow man, rather than being based on a constant appeasement or impossible striving for perfection.

Still, it doesn't mean that, when these people become Christians, they can just do whatever they want. Not everything is beneficial, and not everything is constructive. So here we now have a message which needs to be heard by both secular non-Christians, and non-western Christians.

vs 24

This is the classic statement of Christianity - while we are free in Christ, we are not free to explore our own selfish desires and ambitions - we must put everyone before ourselves, especially Christ.

vs 25-26

Paul sets out his attitude on freedom, regarding food sacrificed to idols, very straightforwardly. If you're wanting food to eat, just go and buy it. What's happened to it is not a concern to you, and is acceptable under Christian freedom. After all, even if it has been sacrificed to an idol, it still belongs to God, him being God and all.

vs 27

The point Paul is making here is that if someone offers you something, and they don't raise any issues, then don't be the one to raise issues about it. Because, all things being equal, it is not an issue to a Christian.

vs 28-29

But if they do make a big deal about it, then simply refuse to eat it. But not for your own sake, and this is getting back to doing things out of love for others rather than for yourself. If it's going to make someone freak out that you're eating idol-meat, then don't do it (in front of them). In this way, you stop another person's conscience judging your freedom.

Which is interesting, because you would think that your Christian freedom to eat stuff sacrificed to idols would be a great witness to Christ and your Christian life. But apparently, Paul thinks differently.

vs 30

The thing that really gets me here is that the situation Paul has constructed revolves around eating at an unbeliever's house! Is Paul saying that we should pander to an unbeliever's stereotypical view of what Christians can and can't do?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say no. I don't think Paul is talking about pandering to Christian stereotypes, I think he is talking about doing things that is actually going to offend their consciences. And there's no reason to offend someone with your religious freedom. This is one of those things that shows the necessity of not only reading in context, but reading about the desired effect of the task that is required - because of course, often in our culture a different task will be required to get the desired effect.

vs 31

Even in simple activities that we do every day, like eating and drinking, we can bring glory to God. And that is more important than the actual activity itself, even eating and drinking! That's hard to remember sometimes, especially with things we just do without thinking every day.

vs 32

It's hard to think about a non-Christian stumbling, but I guess we can all do things which will prevent them from becoming Christians. Now isn't that funny, though, that this might sometimes mean , instead of saying "no" to something, we have to say "yes" to something that is allowable to us as Christians but that perhaps we don't like. Because if someone thinks, for example, that they could never be a Christian because it means not going to parties (after using me as their example, who hates parties but knows I could go without any problems to my faith), then that might cause a stumbling block to them.

vs 33

The whole point of this exercise is to bring people into the Kingdom of God, and to keep them there. And by reading that, you can read back into Paul's statements from this chapter, and see why he does what he does, and why he tells the Corinthians to do what he tells them to do. And we can then look at what he expects the result to be, and take the godly principle and apply it in our modern cultural setting.